jenius

The color and the schemes are all wrong. I don't particularly care... and maybe people are me are the reason Yamato is doing it. They must have felt that the schemes in the show weren't attractive so now they're selling attractive schemes instead.

Maybe it's just the subject matter. The whole quasi-rape thing isn't a very appealing arch. I end up learning that three characters I don't really connect with don't get along because of a subject I feel kind of uncomfortable with. Basically it seems like Guld should be beyond redemption, Isamu should feel no loyalty to him, and Myung should get as far as she can away from both of them anyway (from my narrow perspective).

Out of curiosity, I have two questions: 1) Is it actually cheaper these days (or equivalent in price) to do average (insert your own adjective there for whatever you'd call RT's) 3D animation than excellent quality 2D hand drawn (or in the hand drawn style as I doubt anything is hand drawn any more) animation? 2) If it's still cheaper to do animation 2D style, would you have preferred RT to go that route and shirk 3D entirely?

Well let's not judge too quickly. They might have just thrown a cheap light in it for the purpose of the display and to say "This thing will light up" but that might not really represent exactly how it will light up.

If it also vibrates I think I can convince my girl to help fund this...

"This picture was taken right before security beat us and dragged us out of the building for attempting to steal the prototype."

Man, if they kill Macross then Robotech will be my last bit of anime I continue to follow Please God, don't let them kill Macross.

Glad I could help but you should definitely fish for more input from the model guys around here. If one of them has actually built one and they found it to be easy and well-done that'd be worth a lot more than my 2 cents.

Therein lies the incentive to sell your standard Hikaru 1J (should you have one) and buy the super combo when it gets reissued. There was a guy selling three Super 1J Hikarus on eBay for $169.99 not too long ago. I'm sure you could have bought one and sold the box and valk to someone on here for like $110 or something. Anyway, that's what it's going to take... a little creativity and, as always, CASH!

Well, ya gotta figure the box for a Yamato toy would also be made by Yamato and "ugly as sin" seems pretty much par for the course. I think they were on the right path with the early 1/48s (black with some text). That said, I think the Super Hikaru TV VF-1J has a nice post-apocalytpic feel to it.

Kinda, you can still get $200 for an absolutely pristine Max Takatoku. I think I even saw them hit $250 still occasionally. Sometimes they go for less. If it ain't absolutely pristine you're looking at a $100 worst-case scenario and somewhere around $150 best case (if it has its box and gun and what not). No box, no gun, no inserts, damage, yellowing.... who knows.... Don't just blame Bandai though, it was also the market flooding from the likes of Toynami and Yamato they really helped crush the secondary market values.

When was that thing made? It looks cool, I'll take one!

Yep, well summarized. It's totally that subjective "eh, they just didn't really grab me" thing so I definitely can see where people would disagree.

Why are we assuming that 19 is modified in any way? I kinda doubt it. I think that's the original YF-19 and it had room for Neumann all along. Graham... am I wrong?

That's just a lighting effect. Here are some pics I took for my reviews on anymoon.com, DYRL parts on the left in the first couple) Here are the TV fast packs in brighter light, not green, just a lighter shade of that off-blue used for the DYRL parts. The TV Fastpacks are just a slightly lighter shade of the same. It's my understanding that there are many types of Enigma schemes or "engima-like" schemes. I think Yamato would have a ton of wiggle-room. As to the paint issue, the Angelbirds definitely did chip on mine as well . Still, Yamato has improved their painting ability by no small margin and maybe they're learning which areas to leave as molded plastic and which areas have far less risk of paint chipping (ie. don't paint the friggin hips!).

Okay, I'm no model guy so don't shank me or anything, but when you can get the MPC for the same price, and it's sturdier, diecast, and in some ways nicer than the model, why buy the model? Why not buy the completed MPC and do some airbrush work to weather it. Heck, being a modeler you could probably make some really cool tweaks to it. See, I think that answers my question though, building the model is half the fun and you'd get none of that with the MPC. Quick Edit - I did own these models at one point so I have examined them up close. I asked a pro to help build them for me and he told me they required lots of filling and extra effort so he wanted a nice amount of $$. I sold my models shortly thereafter.

There's a learning curve with these toys. First few times takes a lot of patience and you'll learn tricks to help you out along the way. By the 5th time you'll have it down to a point where you never have to stop and be frustrated. Then, after a million or so transformations, it'll be a piece of cake!

While you're right about how little of the valk you actually see, I think having a light gray valk within the armor would benefit the overall presentation (head, hands, arms would all match the GBP). How lame would it be to just clamor for a light gray valk though? Instead we clamor for a valk that is also cool on its own. Maybe Yamato makes an Enigma and people buy 2, one for the matching GBP and one to stand on its own (which I think had to be thought with the GBPII). Any rehash Yamato does is just making money for them at this point to put toward other releases. I don't think we'd be getting another repainted VF-1 INSTEAD of some other cool toy, I think we'd be getting another VF-1 to FACILITATE another cool toy. So, if I have to buy a super cool Enigma Valk to help me get a super cool 1/60 VF-11B then darn it, I'm happy to help!

I'm with Hat...erm Do Not Disturb. There's going to be a big price decrease (not as severe as the 1/60 VF-1 though which dropped below MPC pricing for a while). The 1/72 benefits from a couple things. 1) The toys are very hard to keep in pristine shape so excellent samples will demand a premium. 2) They've been out for a while now giving them a nostalgia factor. The 1/60 VF-1 was still being released when the 1/48 began production so there were tons of 1/60 still in circulation when the 1/48 showed up. This isn't the case with the 1/72 which has been out of production and already became scarce. The other thing to consider is the 1/60 YF-19 will have a huge price and the decrease in value for the 1/72 may actually make them a more viable option for people who just wan ANY Yf-19 toy. Then, 5 years from now, the 1/72 will be the diecast collectors item while the 1/60 YF-19 will be in it's 5th reissue.

Theyre also the kit that Toynami used to design the MPC. From what I understand, they're extremely frail, difficult to build, and once you have them painted they should never be transformed.

Good point but the Simpsons, while a cash cow now, never seemed dependent upon toy sales. I don't know who was the original financier of the Simpsons but I highly doubt it was a company like Bandai. Maybe I have the wrong impression though. It seems to me like American shows are purely made with the hope of drawing as many viewers as possible and selling commericals whereas it always seems to me that anime franchises are directly related to toy manufacturers. Admittedly, I could be completely wrong and the only reason it seems that way is because I like anime toys. My reason for stating the question was not to imply that the writing of shows had any consideration for foreign audiences. The reason I asked was more to determine if the Macross franchise is suffering production-wise from HG's refusing to allow it to permeate to the US. Is there a Japanese business man somewhere crunching the numbers and concluding that Macross isn't as viable a franchise as some other franchises because they'll never see extra cash on the back end from US distribution?

Eh, I didn't think that preview was all that bad... but maybe that's because I've had the benefit of reading all the comments here and expecting the worst. I felt the line used to show off Chase was pretty funny but ya gotta remember she's voicing an android. It'd be like trying to find a really cool line spoken by Data in a Star Trek episode. Otherwise the animation definitely wasn't good but the 2D stuff was plenty passible and the characters looked attractive enough. Some of the 3D didn't seem all that bad but man, the parts of CG that are bad are always so jarring. I could offer lots of theories on why this doesn't look more spectacular but there's no point. It's all going to boil down to the story. Being a little too familiar with the RT universe I'm probably going to fall for all the fanboy service (obscure references) and like this more than most MWers.

I was told by an angry otaku once that anime's creation never considered the bankability to outside countries (this otaku may have also been a bit of a nationalist). He told me that the projects were specifically created to make money in Japan and anything made in the foreign markets subsequently was just icing on the cake. I found this hard to believe but not being in the anime business I just shrugged it off. Would you say this person was definitely wrong?

Fire Valkyrie Check that link out, it has pictures of the boxes and a brief write-up on ways of telling the original from a knock-off. There might be more encompassing info elsewhere but that should help you out in a pinch.

It was bankable enough for Robotech to even exist though and Robotech nearly spawned a sequel if it weren't for the collapse of the Yen (or was it the dollar?). The fact is that HG was out to squash Macross in English and they are at this very moment bringing over the original in dub fashion. I'm not really sure what your point is but the Macross name has a very dirty English past mired in many difficulties. It would absolutely not be fair to say that Macross isn't bankable to English-speakers based on that troubled past.